


i don't wanna rock the cradle

by Star_less



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: (do you expect anything less), Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Complete, Cuddling & Snuggling, Family Fluff, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Infantilism, Insecure Peter Parker, IronDad & SpideySon, Irondad, Not Canon Compliant, One Shot, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Slice of Life, Spoilers, Superfamily (Marvel), Team as Family, That's it, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Upset Peter Parker, he just needs to know irondad loves him, not heavy HEAVY ones but spoilers are spoilers, sort of not canon anyway], spideyson, that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 20:18:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18611779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_less/pseuds/Star_less
Summary: “That’s a father’s job. My job.”(watch endgame, then read.)





	i don't wanna rock the cradle

**Author's Note:**

> watch endgame before you read this. I mean, I personally don't think the spoilers are HUGE but you'll enjoy it more if you watch endgame first and then no one can whine to me about getting spoiled x INSPIRED BY endgame but not canon endgame because canon endgame makes me stick my fingers in my ears and go, "la la la". ok I'll be quiet. 
> 
> actually no I won't. eeeee Peter is so babyish in this but I WRITE HIM THAT WAY OK if not click back find something better. yeah oops o forgot to add the infantilism tag but it’s there now hooray

“Hey, kiddo!”  
Tony Stark’s grainy but ever-serious face shone out from Peter’s phone. He had sent Peter an urgent message while he was in the middle of science class and Peter had had to feign a tummyache just to see what Tony wanted. He was currently sat uncomfortably in the nearest toilet cubicle at school with his knees squished up to his chin so no one would see where he was hiding and rat him out. Mr. Stark had been talking for a couple of minutes now and in all honesty, Peter had missed all of it. Not that he had intended to ignore Mr Stark, but... well, he had sort of ended up ignoring the billionaire’s chattering in favour of thinking how cold it was in the bathroom, or how uncomfortable the toilet seat was, how it dug into his bum, and how he wished Mr. Stark would hurry up so he could shift over before his bum got numb. “...so, I’d like you to come over as soon as possible. I can pick you up right now, if you want?”  
Somehow, Peter’s brain kicked into gear then. He gasped and spluttered softly, trying to make his mouth say something—anything—to his mentor that would make it sound as if he had been listening the entire time. School — he had school. It wasn’t even lunchtime and he was slap bang in the middle of double chemistry, he couldn’t just— couldn’t just leave! But... but if Mr. Stark needed him now, it... something must have been wrong. 

“I... Okay..?” Peter squeaked out nervously, shifting on the spot. “But— I—!”  
“Great!” Stark burst with a beaming smile before the teenager could get another word in. “Don’t worry about class, it’s all in my hands kiddo. See you soon!”

*

Mr. Stark picked him up, as he had promised. As Peter sat in the back of his Audi, watching the trees blur into one another, something uncomfortable and cold— like... long anxious fingers — branched out in the pit of his belly. He had travelled this road enough with Stark to know exactly where the man was leading him. The Avengers Tower. Had he... done something wrong? Was he in trouble? Was somebody else in trouble?  
“Mr. Stark?” he whispered, shifting in his seat as if that’d magically force away the frostiness in his tummy. “Am... am I in trouble?”

Tony glanced at Peter through the mirror and laughed. It wasn’t a mean laugh; it was a low gentle chuckle, and it sounded all fond and soft. It did something to Peter’s tummy— sort of made a warm flutter that hadn’t been there before, a warm flutter that replaced the anxious wriggles. “Did you not listen to me earlier on, Pete?”  
Ah. That statement almost made the anxious feelings come back full force. His eyes widened owlishly, although Peter found he couldn’t make his mouth say anything in return to his mentor. To Peter’s great relief Tony chuckled again and shook his head. “Don’t worry, kiddo. Nobody is in trouble, and everything is okay.”

Peter relaxed at that. Some of the anxious roots in his tummy wilted away — but not quite all of them. 

*

Mr. Stark walked him down the halls of the Avengers Tower. For once, Peter didn’t know where they were going and he didn’t quite like the feeling it gave him as he watched endless halls unwind before him. “Where are we going, Mr. Stark?” he asked, squeezing his hands into his pockets and trying to get them to stop feeling so clammy.  
Mr. Stark didn’t answer him, which wasn’t a good sign. Peter watched as Tony pressed his palm onto a nearby scanner and the doors that they were suddenly in front of—whoa, when did that happen?!— opened with a slow buzz. 

“Hi, sweetie!”  
Pepper. Was... was she talking to him? Peter looked cluelessly up toward Tony, who just nodded and encouraged the teenager inside. Peter stood in the middle of the room, rocking on his heels nervously and taking in his surroundings. Well... it didn’t look as if anything was the matter. Miss Pepper was sat on a long couch, her feet up, while a monitor in the corner beeped and burbled to itself (although it was turned away so Peter couldn’t see what was on the monitor display) - and Pepper was beaming from ear to ear. “Hi, Pepper.” Peter whispered shyly, waving a little bit. “Is... something wrong? Do I need a checkup?”

Pepper giggled again as she shifted to sit up, patting the couch space beside her. “No. Sit down, sweetie.” She said. Peter looked unsurely from Pepper to Tony, but even Tony gave a little nod toward him, so Peter sat and squished himself up against Pepper. Then Tony sat down too—sat down next to Pepper with his arm around her—and Peter squirmed unsurely. What was going on?

“We need to have a little talk, Pete.” Tony said. These words dropped into Peter’s tummy and instantly made him feel sick. Oh no. He really was in trouble. His chest went tight and a lump rose in his throat and suddenly it was difficult for him to get breaths in-out-in-out of his lungs. “I- I’m sorry! I’ll be a b- better Avenger, please don’t kick me off of the team!” He burst before Tony could get a word in, tears glittering in his eyes. His heart beat hard in his ears and his lip was trembly. 

“...what? Peter, no!” Tony said, chuckling. Somewhere in the background Peter could hear Pepper cooing out an ‘aww’.  
“Sweetheart, you’re not off the team.” Pepper reassured him, ruffling his duckling tufts of hair reassuringly. The movement was gentle and motherly and even though Aunt May had done it to him so many times, it felt different somehow— it was able to calm his frantic breathing in an instant and bring him back down to Earth. “Definitely not. Tony thinks you’re doing a great job, don’t you honey?”

Tony nodded. “Course I do. I think a lot of people could learn from you, Pete.”  
He twisted in place, patting Pepper’s belly. “...Starting with this little one.”

Peter looked at Tony and Pepper for a long, long moment. “...Pepper?” He said softly, brows knitting together in confusion as he drew his gaze between both adults. “But Pepper is clever. What could I teach her that she doesn’t know already?”

Pepper laughed adoringly at him, at the same time shooting Tony a ‘take that’ sort of glance. “Thank you sweetheart, but not me.” She rubbed her tummy again, lightly, to see if Peter would get the hint... but there was no light in Peter’s eyes that suggested so. For a moment she wondered just how a boy could be so clever yet so sweetly clueless. “Peter, darling,” she smiled, eyes bright and adoring, voice soft and slow as though she was talking to a boy that was a bit younger than Peter. “I’m going to have a baby.”

Oh. 

_...Oh._

Pepper was smiling, so maybe this was a happy thing. Tony was smiling too. Who was Peter kidding - he was a clever boy, he knew he should have been happy at this news. Everybody who was anybody was happy whenever someone said they were having a baby, right? Ned was happy when his baby sister was born. Besides, this meant that there was somebody else he could train up, like Tony said. For some reason, Peter could feel big ugly petals blooming in his belly - big ugly petals and sour flapping butterflies. This news... did not make him very happy. Perhaps it was the butterflies fluttering around in the pit of his tum, but he suddenly felt very sick. “Is... is it a boy or a girl?” He whispered, trying not to let his voice wobble too much or for tears to sting his eyes. All of a sudden Peter didn’t want Tony to have a baby boy. What if Tony did have a baby boy? His first... son..  
What... what was going to happen to Peter? Sure he was an Avenger but... but lately he had felt like more than that, he had felt like Tony’s, like he belonged to Tony even if Aunt May was around. If... if Tony had a new baby, especially a boy, then... he wasn’t going to want Peter around, was he? 

“The baby’s a little bit too small to know if it’s a boy or a girl just yet, Peter.” Tony explained gently, but he swung a nearby monitor closer to the group. “Would you like to see?”

Peter wanted to say no. No he didn’t want to see. But that might hurt Pepper’s feelings. “...Okay, Mr. Stark.” he whispered. Tony turned the monitor to face them and there staring back at the three was a black and white blob of... something... in Pepper’s tummy. It didn’t quite look like a baby just yet. “Oh..” he said softly, a ghost of a smile tracing his lips. “That’s... that’s really good, Mr. Stark. Congratulations.”

Tony smiled. Oblivious to Peter’s feelings. “Anyway, kiddo. You must be starved. How’s about we get some grub?”

Peter blinked, trying not to dissolve there and then. He was starving. He hadn’t eaten because Stark had pulled him out of class before lunch, and he was pretty sure his body was going to eat itself if he didn’t get anything down him soon... but he didn’t really want to hang around Tony just now. Maybe he could blame his tear-filled eyes on that. Yeah. Yeah. He was... hungry. Hungry and emotional. “No thank you, Mr. Stark,” he said as he picked up his school bag, painfully aware of the surprised look that crossed Tony’s features since Peter never usually turned down food or the opportunity to spend time with Tony. “I- I need to finish up the schoolwork I missed.” Aunt May was still at work, but he could let himself into their apartment and whip up a grilled cheese and some tomato soup no problem. Before Tony could protest and have Peter melt into hot, humiliating tears and ruin it all, the teenager had twisted on his heels and disappeared. 

“What’s wrong with him?” Tony asked the now silent room. Pepper shrugged in response. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it just yet, but something told her that Peter wasn’t a hundred percent. “Maybe he doesn’t want a cheeseburger.”  
She kissed his cheek. “I do, though. Extra mustard, extra pickle. Off you go.”

Huh, Tony thought as he grabbed his keys. Baby Stark was only ten weeks old but they already had good taste.

*

Peter didn’t see Tony for his weekly training the following week.  
Or the week after.  
Or the week after that.  
He still went out on patrol — that Tony knew, since FRIDAY was updating him continuously on the boy’s whereabouts thanks to the Baby Monitor protocol. But it had been weeks - nearly a month - since Tony had properly heard from the boy and he was beginning to wonder if he had done something to offend him. That tended to be the case; he wasn’t the best at mentoring and Peter tended to be on the sensitive side, so he wasn’t surprised if something he had said or done had cut too close. But Peter... Peter was his son—sort of—Peter was his practice for this whole ‘parenting’ thing - he couldn’t screw it up so soon. 

There was only one thing for it.

*

Peter wasn’t sure why he went. He didn’t want to – lately, even the idea of seeing Tony made something ugly swirl inside him, made all his hairs stand on end and his skin prickle in discomfort. But Mr. Stark had asked for help and he had asked for it in such a way that Peter knew he would feel guilty if he turned it down. Sure, there was a part of him (a part that he was trying so desperately to conceal and hide right down in the very pit of his heart) that longed to see Tony… a part of him that missed Tony and, just for a second, wondered if Tony missed him back—but that… that wasn’t why he was going. He was going to see Tony because Tony had asked for help, and any good Avenger should help someone in need. ‘Sides, maybe if he helped Tony out, Tony would reconsider whenever his baby was born and would let everything carry on the way things were; just the way Peter liked them.  
Heh. Of course he wouldn’t. Tony had a new kid now, he had no reason to miss Peter, no reason to change things (or not!) for him. Still, along Peter ambled to the Avengers compound (after school on a Wednesday, their usual mentoring session slot) and along he went in the direction of Tony’s laboratory. What did Tony need his help with? Oh, Peter so hoped it was a new suit modification, or some coding, or a cool new gauntlet. Peter loved those lab sessions most of all because he worked the hardest and when he worked the hardest he made Tony the most proud.

“Hello, young sir.” FRIDAY’s chipper voice flooded through the compound and lit it with life; even from where Tony was situated it made his heart squeeze. “Mr. Stark isn’t in his laboratory at present. He’s…”

*

“Hello, Mr. Stark.” Peter whispered, dropping his backpack on the floor and standing in the doorway on level 7, just across from Stark’s bedroom. Except Stark wasn’t in his bedroom, he was sat on the floor of a plain white room, grumbling to himself. Peter’s presence made the grumbling cease at once. He twisted in place and offered Peter an award winning smile, beckoning him forward. “Hey, kiddo. I’m so glad to see you. Can I grab an extra pair of hands to help me put this crib together?” He pleaded. 

Peter’s heart sank. This… was not what he wanted. Not what he wanted at all. This was just another reminder that he was pushed out even further from Tony’s life. Despite himself, he sunk down next to his mentor with a nod and picked up the instruction leaflet and one of the crib pieces. He didn’t want to, but he had to do something to stop himself from crying.

This… was not going the way Tony had expected. The pair worked in silence for a good hour. Now, working in silence wasn’t unusual for either of them, especially when they were both absorbed in activities. But this silence seemed different somehow – frosty, cold, like something was still very wrong. It… it wasn’t about the crib, anyway. The baby was barely fifteen weeks yet, they didn’t even know if they were having a boy or a girl – but rather it was a desperate attempt to reach out to Peter after him having ignored Tony’s calls to mentoring sessions. Still, no matter what opening Tony gave the boy, “How’s school?”, “Is Aunt May doing fine?”, “I saw your patrolling last weekend, great job!” he was rewarded with nothing. Eventually Tony realised when he wasn’t wanted and the two worked in silence.

Peter couldn’t speak to him. He felt as if the second he opened his mouth he was going to burst into tears and everything was going to come tumbling out in a hot, horrible mess. If Tony didn’t want to mentor him now, he certainly wouldn’t want to if he found out that Peter was wishing that he wasn’t going to have a baby. Somewhere along the way Peter’s mind had drifted away from the instructions he was reading and to the horrible, sad thoughts in his head. His face got hot and so did his eyes and as he desperately tried to fit two pieces together, he cracked. 

“Come on, Peter. What’s going on?” Tony pleaded. This was so unlike him. 

“These stupid pieces won’t fit together!” Peter screamed suddenly, throwing the pieces down. The scream turned into a sob at the end and there was nothing Peter could do about it; Tony caught it easily and quirked a brow. Somehow, he didn’t think this was about some poorly put together flatpack furniture. 

“Try again, kiddo.” He requested softly. 

Peter pushed the heels of his hands to his face and scrubbed desperately, trying to force himself to stop crying. “…You don’t have to mentor me any more. It’s okay.” He breathed out once he was confident his voice would stay on an even keel. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Tony frowning but couldn’t meet his gaze. 

“Not mentor you…? Why…?” Tony asked softly, feeling as though he had been punched in the gut. “I… what if I don’t want to stop mentoring you, Peter?”

No, no, no, no. Nonononono, he wasn’t meant to say that. “You will, you will,” Peter sobbed, rocking slowly as if he was trying to comfort himself. “When you have your new baby.”

Tony wasn’t sure if the sensation in his stomach was the penny finally dropping or yet another punch to the gut – or a combination of both. “Peter…” His voice was low. He took Peter’s face in his hands, upset dwindling somewhere in his heart at the warm wetness on the teenager’s cheeks. “Is.. is that what all of this is about? That’s what you think?”

His words made Peter whimper. He wasn’t sure he could speak. Tony spoke for him. “Peter, at school, who’s listed as your emergency contact?”

Peter startled as this question was thrown at him, not expecting for the conversation to switch direction so rapidly. The shock forced his tears to dwindle. “You are, Mr. Stark.” He sniffled. Now that Tony was cradling him, Peter relished the sensation. He had missed it. That sensation. A sensation of… of being secure and of being loved. He was already slowly worming his way into Tony’s lap and rooting for a section of his shirt he could hold onto. Even if it was something a toddler did to their parent, it brought him immense comfort. 

“Mhhm.” Tony agreed. “What about last night, when Clint accidentally left that scary movie on TV and you had a bad dream. Who came to see you and made sure you were safe and read you a bedtime story?” 

“You, Mr. Stark.” Peter whispered, sub consciously burrowing into his mentor at the mention of the movie. Falling asleep to the sound of Mr. Stark’s voice had been nice, especially because he even did all the silly voices. 

“What about when you’re hurt out on patrol or on missions? Who does Karen call for?”

“You, Mr. Stark.” Peter could see where this was going. That last one was embarrassingly correct. He had even found himself – when Flash was being a jerk or he had just had a bad day at school – wishing for Tony to be there with him. 

Tony stroked Peter’s face lightly to wick all the tears away and this time Peter didn’t stop him; instead, he began to weaken with relaxation. “That’s right.” Tony nodded. “Do you know why? Do you know whose job that is, Peter?” He brushed the hair from Peter’s eyes and held him close; never one for cuddling but yet he too had missed Peter as much as Peter had missed him. “That’s a father’s job. My job.” 

No matter how many babies Stark had, no matter whether they were boys or girls Peter was and always would be Tony’s Stark’s first son. He would always mentor Peter as long as Peter needed him to.  
That was all Peter needed to hear and it was like all the bad feelings had drained away. Of course, Tony explained, as they sat on the floor in baby Stark’s room amongst the unfinished cot and as he rocked Peter in his arms until he was sure there were no more tears, things would be a little bit different for a little while… but they were not going to change as dramatically as Peter thought they would. ‘I have to keep you around, anyway.’ The billionaire teased, ‘I’m going to need you to babysit.’ 

(and when Peter had that call twenty two weeks later, when he had Aunt May squeal the tires the entire way to the hospital and when he burst into Pepper’s hospital room, he was the very first one to get to hold Morgan Stark tight and tell her of all the fun they were going to have together… and that, yes, he was going to babysit her and he would show her cool web tricks and feed her chocolate chip cookies when nobody was looking.

Like a good big brother should.)

**Author's Note:**

> this was so bad I'm so sorry but I'll have more better stuff soon I swear comments and kudos though please I'm greedy


End file.
